{"id":31389,"date":"2021-01-19T13:08:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T18:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/?p=31389"},"modified":"2021-12-15T00:18:57","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T05:18:57","slug":"the-next-silicon-valley-will-have-no-zip-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/the-next-silicon-valley-will-have-no-zip-code\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Silicon Valley Will Have No ZIP Code"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this segment of “Office Optional with Larry English<\/a>,” he talks about the future of remote work, startups and the role of the physical office in technology innovation.<\/h2>\n
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As of May 2020, Silicon Valley was home to 2,000 tech companies<\/a> \u2014 the greatest concentration anywhere in the world. Between 2011 and 2019, Silicon Valley startups received more than $113 billion<\/a> of funding. Add in an incredible concentration of talent generating and building on innovative ideas plus top tech corporations hungry to gobble up new companies, and it\u2019s been an environment impossible to emulate anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n

But times are changing, and Silicon Valley\u2019s reign as an epicenter of technology innovation is coming to an end. In 2019, startups in the Bay Area saw a decrease in new funding<\/a>, from $63.6 billion to $45.9 billion, while funding deals outside of Silicon Valley have been slowly increasing<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n

Pam Springer, an Ohio-based serial entrepreneur, startup advisor and investor, says there are clear signs that the startup ecosystem is becoming more geographically diverse. \u201cMass attracts mass, and Silicon Valley no longer has a corner on it,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you start to have success, it causes the ecosystem to become denser, and suddenly, others outside of Silicon Valley are invited to the conversation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Startups Will Have No ZIP Code<\/h2>\n

Historically speaking, a frenzy of innovation never settles forever on a single location \u2014\u00ad think of Detroit<\/a> in the late 1950s, Italy during the Renaissance and ancient Greece as philosophers laid the groundwork for modern democracy. It takes the right environment to make innovation blossom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Silicon Valley\u2019s environment is no longer ideal, in part because of the massive inflation in the cost of living over the past decade \u2014 the median home price is upward of $1 million, and even a six-figure salary<\/a> isn\u2019t necessarily enough to put you out of the low-income bracket. People started fleeing the area<\/a> a few years ago in search of more affordable living, a trend that\u2019s only accelerated with the massive shift to remote work<\/a> during COVID-19<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So where\u2019s the next hotspot? Experts have thrown in their vote for a wide range of places: Beijing<\/a>, Shanghai, London<\/a>, Paris, Berlin, Tel Aviv<\/a>, Toronto<\/a> and even Philadelphia<\/a>, to offer a shortlist. Likely, it\u2019s none of those places. In fact, I\u2019d bet the next Silicon Valley is nowhere at all \u2014 it\u2019s in the cloud.<\/p>\n

Rich Langdale, managing partner of Midwest-based NCT Ventures and a partner in Silicon Valley venture fund Health2047 Capital, agrees. \u201cThere is a digitalization of everything, which means startups can now be successful outside of a Bay Area ZIP code,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The cloud<\/a> gives companies several benefits, including the ability to easily scale and build geographically dispersed teams that can develop products virtually.<\/strong> \u201cCompanies founded today that are digital have a significant leg up \u2014 their cost structure is better and they can get the best talent anywhere to build digital solutions,\u201d notes Springer. \u201cThe demographics of customers are also increasingly digital, leading to alignment between customers and the virtual startups solving business problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the epicenter of tech innovation becomes the cloud, implications for startups include:<\/h3>\n